Dragon's Song
by dragonflybeach
Summary: Six years later, Draco is stuck on a project in China, bored, lonely, and homesick, with an assistant who drives him nuts. Fortunately, there's a Scamander Expedition in the area studying a newly discovered species of dragons. Druna
1. Chapter 1

Draco Malfoy hated China.

He hated the little house on the side of the mountain that was their home for the duration of the project, because it wasn't like the Manor. Actually, it wasn't like any house he had ever been in, even if it was infintely better than the hovel they'd had to stay in while they were in Africa.

He hated that even though the view was spectacular, the countryside just didn't smell like home.

He hated that floo mail took over 24 hours to reach his mother and even longer to come back. And forget owls.

He hated the fact that you couldn't get a meal that wasn't fried and swimming in some kind of sauce and splattered over rice or noodles. No one in this godforsaken place had heard of ham. And what passed for tea in this country was barely even potable.

He hated that the wizarding society here was positively medieval. The floo network barely connected towns, much less places within the towns. The administration was practically non-existent. Only the wealthiest families could afford a proper wizarding education for their children. Therefore, there was a lot of accidental magic, and a lot of persecution of magical people who didn't understand what was going on. Hence the reason the Malfoy Foundation was building this wizarding school.

He hated the fact he couldn't go anywhere without his interpreter, because no one in the freaking country spoke English. Or even French. Wasn't that supposed to be the official international diplomatic language?

He hated that his interpreter and right hand man on this project was a Korean born, Hogwarts educated Ravenclaw named Han who was so freaking brilliant that he made Draco feel stupid at least twice a day, without even trying.

He hated that Han was fluent in Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Queen's English, Vietnamese, Japanese, French, Spanish, Greek, sarcasm, and American Muggle movie lines, so half the time Draco didn't know what he was talking about.

He hated that Han was just the right height and build with hair exactly the right length so that he looked _way too much like Severus Snape from the back._

He had only been here a week. He had another four months or so to go.

* * *

><p>"You know," Han mentioned at the end of the second week of listening to Draco's grumbling. "You're not the only Englishman in Shanxi province."<p>

Draco snorted and rolled his eyes.

"You do know there's a Scamander Foundation expedition two mountains over, studying that species of dragon that was discovered when we were scouting locations for the school, right? In fact, two of their group even went to Hogwarts." Han popped another handful of peanuts into his mouth. He ate more than Ron Weasley.

"You're just telling me this now?" Draco asked. "Surely you aren't serious."

"Of course I'm serious," Han smirked. "And don't call me Shirley."

Draco shook his head and didn't ask. He had learned by now that the explanations weren't worth it most of the time. "Do you know who they are?"

Han shrugged. "Rolf Scamander is there, of course, but he was home schooled. Then there's Charlie Weasley, who went to school with me, and some younger girl, probably about your year, named Goodheart or something. Blonde, pretty, but kinda weird."

"Lovegood." Draco sighed. "And more than kinda weird."

It figured. More than 5000 miles from home, and one of his nearest neighbors was a freaking Weasley.

* * *

><p>Thursday evening Han announced he was going over to the Scamander camp and invited Draco to come along. Draco declined, not in the mood to go play nice with a Weasley and Loony Lovegood. Han shrugged and told him that it was his loss.<p>

After he left, Draco floo called his office, as of course, it wasn't even lunch time there yet. Astoria, efficient as ever, had already arranged for delivery of all the supplies they would need for the month and told him she was floo mailing him the paperwork to sign for the permits they would need for the next stage of the project. He called his mother, who told him she could only talk for a moment, as she was about to go to lunch with his Aunt Andromeda.

"Do I take it that you are regretting your decision to head the Chinese school project yourself instead of sending Han?" she asked, one eyebrow arched.

Draco shrugged. "I don't know. I still think getting away will help put perspective on everything. But I miss you and I miss home and all."

"Do you miss Astoria?" she smiled hopefully.

"Don't push it, Mother." he sighed. "She was my best friend for a long time. I do miss her in that regard. But too much has happened, for things to ever be like they were before."

"Don't say never, Draco." his mother chided. "You two have known each other a long time. You work together well professionally. You have a solid foundation to build on. Have you spoken with her? How is she?"

He rolled his eyes. "Enough, Mother. Yes, I've spoken with her today, but before you get excited, it was just business. If you want to know how she's doing, ask her. She technically works for you."

"She's your administrative assistant." Narcissa pointed out.

"No, she's _our_ administrative assistant." Draco was getting more and more irritated with his mother. "She reports to both of us. And this is enough meddling in my personal life for one day. Go to lunch, Mother."

"I still say you should have let Han manage the site work alone, but you know, maybe what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder..."

"Goodbye, Mother." Draco flipped off the floo.

He prowled around for a while, finally settling on his bed with a book, but had a hard time concentrating. After reading the same page for the third time and still having no idea what it said, he put the book down and stared at the ceiling.

Han wandered in an hour or so later, and knocked on Draco's bedroom door, which wasn't completely closed.

Draco didn't answer. Han pushed the door open anyway, and something sailed across the room and landed on Draco's chest.

"If you don't want that, I'll eat it." Han turned and walked away before Draco could sit up.

Draco carefully unwrapped the metallic paper to find real English fish and chips. He devoured the food before Han could change his mind and come back for it. It was wonderful.

Everyone knew Rolf Scamander was crazy. He saw his father mauled by a manticore and still kept to the family business. Loony Lovegood had been called loony for a reason. And the Weasley, was, well, a Weasley.

But bloody hell, someone over there could cook.


	2. Chapter 2

On Saturday morning, Draco was bored out of his mind. After nearly 30 hours straight, the rain had finally stopped, but the ground was too wet for the foundation work that needed done. Which meant the workers didn't come, so it was only him and Han.

They played wizard's chess, and then Han taught him a muggle card game called poker. He had explained the variation of the game which involved betting clothing, which Draco mentally filed away for future reference. Han also introduced him to a muggle snack called Cheetos, which were pretty good except that they turned your fingers orange.

Draco unfortunately picked up on the game rather well. Which meant after losing three times in a row and informing Draco that "The force is strong in you, young Skywalker", Han decided he didn't want to play any more.

Han wandered off, so Draco decided to head out on his broom for a while. The peace and quiet of flying usually helped to clear his thoughts, but today, it just gave him more time to dwell on his homesickness. He didn't intend to go to the dragon camp. Really. But when he flew over and saw the tent, he realized it was probably rude of him not to stop in and introduce himself. And of course, it was almost lunch time, and it would be rather rude for them not to invite him to stay.

He landed near the entrance of the tent, propping his broom against the frame, and knocked on the pole next to the doorway. A tall, broad-shouldered redhead who could only have been a Weasley pushed the flap aside and barked "Yeah?"

Draco drew himself up to his full height, shoulders back and chin up, and barely looked eye to eye with dragon boy. "Hello, I'm Draco Malfoy and I'm, uh, ..." he thumbed in the general direction of the construction site.

"Han's boss." Weasley finished for him, holding the tent opening wider in invitation. Draco stepped into a much larger place than he expected, larger than the cabin where he and Han were staying. "I'm Charlie. We've never met but I understand you know most of my family." Draco nodded. "You know Luna of course." He gestured at the blonde, who was studying several parchments spread across a table and making notes on something that looked like Narcissa's fine stationary bound together with a curled wire.

"Hello Draco." she greeted him without looking up.

"Rolf is..." Charlie turned completely around. "...here somewhere. I'm sure he'll want to meet you. Han has told us a lot about you."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Han never shuts up."

"True. He even talks in his sleep." Charlie grinned.

"Whatever is cooking smells wonderful." Draco said sincerely.

"Roast beef, potatoes, and home made rolls." Luna informed him, still not looking up. "Yes, you may stay. Charlie's a fantastic cook."

"You cook?" Draco looked at him, stunned.

Charlie shrugged and looked into the muggle cooking box thing to check the food. "Luna's a good cook too. Just don't eat anything Rolf cooks."

"Rolf's a very good cook." Luna announced, still not looking up. "It's just that he prefers to cook over an open fire rather than on a stove, and he tends to cook squirrels and mokes and grindylows and things like that."

"Swears that kneazles taste just like chicken." Charlie called over his shoulder.

Draco looked at Luna, who still hadn't looked at him. "Please tell me that was a joke."

"That was a joke." she replied solemnly.

Draco wasn't sure he believed her.

"I'm going to find Rolf." Charlie pulled a pan of golden bread out and set it on top. He left the room, and Luna began gathering her papers very neatly and particularly.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked.

"Reviewing these notes on different species of dragons and comparing the characteristics to determine genetic origin of the miniature dragons." She finally looked at him. She hadn't changed a bit.

"They're not just small Chinese Fireballs?" Draco frowned.

"No, not at all." Luna shook her head. "The fireballs have their wings attached to the forelegs. This species has separate wings and forelegs. And their color is much deeper, more of a burgundy than a golden red."

"Will you show me the dragons after lunch?" he asked, helping her put dishes and silver on the table.

"No." she said serenely.

"Why not?" Draco spluttered.

"Because dragons are much more temperamental than hippogriffs." she answered.

"I'll have you know that two years ago I saved a pair of hippogriffs." he protested.

She looked at him with her same unchanging expression but said nothing.

"I did!" he continued. "They were going to be put down for causing a public nuisance, but I got them sent to the magical creature sactuary in Kenya."

"That's wonderful, Draco. Did you bow to them first?" she tilted her head at him.

He huffed. "No, I didn't actually do anything with them personally. But I sent Hagrid, because I knew he was the best person for the job."

"I'm sure the hippogriffs appreciate your concern for their well-being." Charlie smirked, coming back into the room. "This is Rolf, by the way."

"Nice to meet you." the other man nodded, crossing over to what was apparently a bunk area in the tent to take off his gloves and boots.

Draco had seen pictures of Scamander, had immediately recognized the curly brown hair worn close to his head and the clear blue eyes. But he had really expected the explorer to be bigger, built more like Charlie. Instead the man was just average height and weight.

"Likewise." Draco shook his hand when Rolf came back to the table.

By that time, the food was on the table, so the foursome sat down to eat. Dinner conversation was mostly asking Draco about what was going on back home, as the dragon expedition had been in China for a little over five months already.

"Thank you so much for inviting me to stay," Draco told his hosts, as everyone pushed away empty plates. "The food was wonderful, and it's been great spending time with someone who speaks English, but doesn't spout off things like 'No Elvis is not dead, he just went home.' all the time. And thank you for the fish and chips Han brought the other night."

"Actually, we should be thanking you." Rolf shrugged. "If it wasn't for your foundation deciding to build a school here, there's no telling when the miniature dragons would have been discovered. And the magical creature sanctuary in Kenya that you built has been a tremendous help to our cause. The least we can do is feed you."

Draco jumped to his feet, helping Luna carry the dishes to the sink. "Are you sure you won't show me a dragon?" he asked again, trying not to whine.

"Not today." Luna smiled. "But you can come back tomorrow. The ground will still be wet."


	3. Chapter 3

On Sunday morning, as Luna had predicted, the ground was still too wet for work. Draco surprised Han by announcing that he was going over to the dragon camp and inviting his assistant to tag along. Han intended to apparate over, but Draco talked him into flying. There was just something about the terrain that reminded him of flying around Hogwarts.

And besides, he wanted a better look at Han's broom, which he suspected had been illegally modified.

They flew to the camp to find all of the dragon hunters working in the tent. Luna once again had her parchments spread out on the table, while Charlie was reading off information that Rolf was typing into a muggle computer.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked, frowning at the list of numbers and names.

"Entering the tracking information for the transmitters we put on the dragons." Rolf shrugged.

"Huh?" Draco repeated the muggle word he had picked up from his assistant.

Charlie smirked at him. "We put a special kind of bracelets on the dragons' legs. It emits a signal that we can use to track the dragons. To see if they migrate with the seasons or in search of food or whatever. At this point, we don't believe they do. And they transmitters have been charmed to alert us when the dragon dies, so we'll get an estimate of their life span. As far as non-magical creatures, smaller breeds usually live longer than larger ones, so we'll see if that holds true for these dragons."

Draco stared wide eyed and fascinated.

"What?" Rolf asked. "You think all we do is sit around and watch them eat and sleep?"

"You don't?" Draco frowned.

"We do that too." Luna informed him. "We just do a lot of other things as well."

"Do I get to see one today?" Draco tried not to sound whiny.

"We're going out when we get this finished." Charlie said. "Shouldn't be more than an hour or so."

Draco sighed and collapsed in the chair across from Luna to watch her work with her parchments.

Less than a minute later, Luna looked up. "You're so very impatient, Draco. Help me put these up and I'll take you to the dragons."

He grinned at her, reaching for the parchments. She stopped his grabbing hands with a look, and showed him how to stack them neatly and in the proper order. By the time they were all arranged and returned to the portfolio, Draco was waiting for her by the door.

"No, not impatient at all." Han rolled his eyes. "You two be careful and the grown-ups will be out there when this is finished."

Luna smiled pleasantly, waiting for Draco to open the tent flap for her. They walked up a path worn into the grass, heading further into the brush and up the side of the mountain.

"So which is it, Loony? Rolf or Charlie?" Draco asked as they walked.

"Rolf or Charlie what?" She looked at him curiously.

"Which one is your boyfriend?" he rolled his eyes.

"Oh. Neither of them." she stopped for a moment, pointing out a patch of low growing plants. "Look, there's chomping cabbage. Neville's going to come visit next month for a week. He wants to collect some of the plant life around here. He's teaching Herbology at Hogwarts, you know."

"So is Neville your boyfriend, then?" Draco persisted.

"No. Although it might have been for the best if he was. He got his heart broken terribly last year." She continued on, leaving Draco to scramble to catch up.

"Really?" Draco raised an eyebrow. "Anyone I know?"

Luna looked at him pointedly. "Yes. But if it was your concern, you'd already know, wouldn't you?" She turned and continued walking. "I do hope the gibbendons aren't too thick out here today."

"What are gibbendons?" he asked.

"I don't know." she shrugged.

"You made that up to change the subject?" he laughed.

She shrugged again. "Usually I can say things like that and people stop talking to me."

"Does that mean you don't want to talk to me?" he stopped walking for a moment.

"No," she reached back to grab his hand and pull him along. "I just don't want to talk about Neville being hurt. It was very sad, when he went through it."

"Okay then, we can go back to talking about you." Draco smirked. "How is it that you're the only woman at least a hundred miles around for the past five months and neither of those men is your boyfriend?"

"Because Rolf is Charlie's boyfriend." Luna tilted her head. "Or is it that Charlie is Rolf's boyfriend? I always forget which way that goes."

Draco stopped again, his eyes wide. "Are you serious?"

Luna's forehead creased. "Yes. Why?"

Draco shook his head and started walking again. "Didn't see that coming."

"You need to learn to look at things with your heart rather than your eyes." Luna explained in her sing-song voice. "You'll be amazed at what you see then."

Draco frowned at the back of her head and stepped into a hole because he wasn't paying attention. He fell.

"Shit!" he shouted, rubbing his ankle. He looked up at Luna. "Sorry."

She flicked her wand at his leg, healing his sprain. "But you have to keep your eyes open, or you'll hurt yourself. And you'll have to stop cursing, or you'll startle the dragons."

"They're close?" he asked a little louder than necessary.

She shushed him, and led him around a bend in the path. They came into an open area on the side of the mountain. Luna held her finger to her lips and pointed. On a low branch, less than twenty feet away, sat one of the miniature dragons and its baby. The mother dragon was about the size of an eagle, and the baby was the size of a large crow. The parent flapped its wings, and the baby did the same. They watched as the flapping continued until the small dragon lifted off the branch for a few seconds. Another adult dragon flew in with a large rabbit in its claws, and the mother and baby joined the other dragon to eat. Luna pointed out another dragon roosted in the trees.

"Wow," Draco whispered. "How close can you get to them?"

"Not too close," Luna answered. "They still breathe fire and have razor sharp talons. But they like Charlie. One of them will even sit on his shoulder like a parrot."

"You're kidding." he stared at her.

"No," she shook her head. "That's why he came. He usually stays in Romania, on the dragon preserve, but Charlie is the world's leading dragon handler. He's like the Crocodile Hunter, but with dragons instead."

"Like the what?" Draco frowned at her.

"The Crocodile Hunter. He's a muggle zoologist. Charlie and Rolf love him. He is rather funny. And he has good ideas about conservation and so forth. I've often wondered if he was really a wizard, because he's very open minded when it comes to animals." she flashed him a brilliant smile. "You could learn a lot while you're in China, Draco. You just need to open your mind."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N - Remember on the List of Things I'm Not Allowed to Do at Hogwarts, how "'I've heard every joke possible about Oliver Wood's name' is not a challenge."? Well, they're not at Hogwarts now, are they?

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, the ground was dry by the next morning, and the construction crew spent the next few days working long hours trying to make up for the missed time. Draco and Han subsisted on sandwiches and things that came in a can.<p>

Needless to say, by that weekend, Draco was in a foul mood again.

He put his foot down on Saturday, insisting that they knock off for the weekend in the early afternoon. He agreed to apparating to the dragon camp when Han suggested it, because he it would probably be dark when they came home, and flying brooms in the dark in strange places, not a good idea.

The trio at the dragon camp had apparently been halfway expecting them.

"We're cooking out tonight!" Luna announced.

"Out where?" Draco asked.

"Outside. Like over a fire." Luna explained.

"Like cavemen? We're not cooking kneazles, are we?" Draco frowned, and Han laughed at him.

"Of course not. Hot dogs and marshmallows." Luna handed him two packages of some kind of muggle meat sticks and handed Han two bags of white puffy things.

They obediently carried them out behind the tent, where Rolf and Charlie had a bonfire started.

"Can you hand me some more wood?" Rolf asked Charlie.

"Speaking of Wood," Draco looked around. "I got a letter from Pansy Parkinson. She and Oliver Wood are getting married."

"Who's Pansy Parkinson?" Rolf asked.

"My teenage girlfriend. Slytherin Quidditch groupie. Her brother Phillip went to school with Charlie and Han."

Charlie looked at Han. "I wooden have seen that coming."

Han shrugged. "I'll go out on a limb and say he was probably board."

Charlie shrugged back. "I met her once. I hope her bark is worse than her bite."

Drco snickered. "Maybe she's been pining for him since his Hogwarts days."

"Joking about the situation walnut make it any better." Luna said lightly.

"How's he going to support her? I mean, he's a second string, not a poplar player." Han continued.

"She's got enough money for both of them, if she's Phillip's sister. He can probably just rest on his laurels." Charlie was straightening pieces of wire that had been twisted into triangle shapes with hooks at the top.

"I heard he had an offer to coach next year. I oak it's true." Draco took one of the straightened wires, looking it over.

"Otherwise, she might pack up her trunk and leaf." Luna suggested.

"I'm sure she'll have him eating out of the palm of her hand." Han smirked.

"Marrying her will up his acceptibility. Her family tree is rooted in old wizarding families." Draco took one of the bent wires and looked it over.

"Hey, I played quidditch with him, and he's a great guy. Don't knock Wood."

Rolf laughed out loud. "These are really getting bad."

"Maybe they'll name their children Holly and Chip." Luna suggested dreamily.

"Enough!" Rolf held up his hands.

"What are these things?" Draco finally had to ask.

"Clothes hangers." Charlied looked at him oddly. "Don't you have them at home?"

"Yes, but ours are made out of..."

"Wood." Charlie, Han, and Luna all finished for him, laughing.

"Oh please, don't start again." Rolf pleaded, although he was laughing as well. He cut open the end of a pack of hot dogs, threading one onto his straightened hanger.

"Do you swear on your magic that you are _not_ feeding me kneazle?" Draco asked seriously.

"Actually," Han looked at the package. "It's chicken and pork by-products. You're probably better off eating kneazle."

Draco looked at Charlie. "What does that mean, by-products?"

"Leftover parts, like lips and toes." Charlie grinned at him.

Draco threw down his bare hanger in horror.

"Just try one. They're not as bad as everyone is making them sound." Luna assured him.

"They're actually pretty good." Charlie nodded. "And cheap, so we ate a lot of them growing up. And we all turned out pretty healthy and all."

An sad look crossed his face for a moment.

"You realize that next week will be six years?" he said softly.

"Wow. It is." Draco frowned.

"Six years of what?" Han asked.

"Six years since the war. Six years that Voldemort has been dead. Six years that Fred's been gone." Charlie stared into the fire.

"Oh. I missed most of that. I was in Hong Kong at the time." Han nodded.

"Me, too. I was in New Zealand." Rolf looked at Charlie with sympathy.

"I wish I could have missed it. I'll have to remember that. The next time a Dark Lord appropriates my house and tries to take over the Wizarding World, I'll leave the country." Draco rolled his eyes.

"I was out of the country when everything went down. I came back." Charlie snapped.

"Yes, you did. And you fought bravely with Dumbledore's Army." Luna said, looking into the fire as if seeing her own ghosts.

"Unlike some..." Charlie began.

"But that was six years ago, and none of us are the same people we were then." Han looked at Charlie pointedly.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Charlie looked over at Draco, who still looked very uncomfortable.

"Eat a hot dog." Luna handed Draco's hanger back to him. "If you do, we'll have pizza tomorrow night."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "How did you know I like pizza?"

"I pay attention." she answered mildly, skewering a hot dog on her own hanger.

Draco still looked doubtfully at the hot dogs.

"Just try one, and I'll let you ride my broom." Han promised.

Draco gave him a long look, and then impaled a hot dog on his hanger and held it over the fire as the others were doing.

"So," Charlie looked at Draco, as if still unsure former Death Eaters should be cooking hot dogs over his campfire. "How did you get to building schools in China?"

Draco shrugged. "It was my mother, really. When my father went to prison the Malfoy name was rubbish. My mother wanted to salvage the family name. To be able to be invited to society functions again and so I could one day find a decent wife and produce a grandchild or two for her to spoil. The one thing we still had was money. So my mother read an article in The Daily Prophet about how the Ministry wanted to build a children's home, but didn't have the galleons. She came up with the idea of the Malfoy Foundation. The Ministry comes up with ideas of things they'd like to see done. Or other groups. We're open to suggestions. Then we make them happen. Like building a school here." he pulled his hot dog away from the fire, turning it around.

"It's done." Luna confirmed.

He cautiously took a bite. Several expressions flickered across his face, finally pausing at puzzlement. "It's not bad." he admitted.

"Whose idea was the magical creatures sanctuary?" Rolf asked, skewering his second hot dog.

"Hagrid's, actually, but he talked the Ministry into it." Draco took another bite of his hot dog. "The Ministry of course was a little skeptical of our motives and abilities. They didn't want us to start with the children's home. Hagrid had been pestering the Department for the Regulation of Magical Creatures for a sanctuary other than the Forbidden Forest for a while, and I think he probably just happened to bother someone on the day the Ministry was trying to figure out what to do with the Malfoy Foundation." he bit off more of the hot dog. "The Creature Sanctuary was all well and good. It was a nice distraction while we were working on it. But I left when the physical structures were done, and wasn't there when they brought any of the residents. So it never felt real to me. Funny thing is, it got a lot of attention. People were coming to us, wanting to donate more money for more projects. But when we were working on the children's home, one of the social workers brought some of the kids over. She was a squib, so she had arranged to be placed over the cases of several wizard children who were in muggle foster care. They were having a rough time, the muggle families didn't understand them. There were two sisters who had lost both of their parents, and were in separate care homes because the agency couldn't find a placement for them together. Those kids were so excited that they were going to have a home." he paused, eating the last bite of his hot dog and chewing thoughtfully. "Meeting those kids made it real to me what we were doing. That for once in my life, I was helping someone other than myself. It just snowballed from there. I started suggesting projects to the Ministry. We've got a list of projects that we want to do over the next ten years. Some small ones, some big ones. Astoria works in the office. She breaks down exactly what we need, as far as time, resources, and so forth, to get a project done. When we've got one going, she arranges everything. Getting the building materials for the school, things like that. Researches for me what I need to do locally to get whatever permits and permissions we might need. I oversee the actual work of the project. And my mother signs the bank drafts. Then when the project is done, we pick out the next one. Remember that kid Dennis Creavey, who was a couple years behind us?" he looked over at Luna, who nodded. "He works for us part time. When we've finished a project, he takes all the pictures, and makes up the displays so we can show our benefactors what we've done with their money. When we're trying to put one together, he does all the artwork and so forth for us to show off to convince people to pledge money."

He reached for a second hot dog and looked around, realizing the other three were all staring at him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make a speech."

"No, it's fine." Charlie said, looking at Draco with a lot more admiration.

"Has your agency considered funding a habitat for crumple horned snorkacks?" Luna asked sweetly.

Han and Charlie laughed and Rolf threw one of the white puffy things at her.

Charlie threaded a couple of the white puffy things onto his hanger and held it over the fire.

"These," Luna handed a few to Draco. "are marshmallows."

"Are they like potatoes?" Draco asked holding one of them up to study in.

"No," she laughed. "They're a sweet." She popped one into her mouth.

Draco bit into one. "These are good. Not too sweet."

"They're even better toasted." Han informed him.

Watching the others, Draco poked a couple marshmallows onto his hanger and held it into the fire. A minute later, his marshmallows were on fire. The other three laughed at him. He rolled his eyes, shooting an aguamenti from his wand to put out the flame.

"Something you forgot to tell me, I presume." he gave them a withering look.

"Draco." Han looked at him with all the seriousness he could muster. "Marshmallows are very flammable."

Everyone laughed again, except Draco, who did manage a wry smile. Luna helped him hold his next set of marshmallows a little further above the flames, pulling them back just as they started to brown.

They all watched his reaction.

Draco grinned. "That was one of the best things I've ever eaten."

Rolf held up some chocolate and graham crackers. "Oh, the treat we have for you."


	5. Chapter 5

A/N - Someone asked me about Draco inviting himself to lunch in chapter 2. I went back to chapter 1, and realized the last half of the chapter had disappeared. I've fixed it now, so please go back and re-read chapter 1, as chapter 2 will make more sense, and (hint) there's a little something at the end of that chapter that's going to turn out to be important later.

A/N 2 - Sorry it's taken me so long to update. My plot bunny is working backwards on this one. The last six or eight chapters are already written, as well as the first two of the sequel. I also apologize if the story seems to be dragging. Remember, these are characters who didn't have that much interaction before now and haven't seen each other in years, so it's going to take some time for romantic feelings to develop. There are definitely some major surprises coming.

* * *

><p>Draco and Han took the whole day off on Sunday, and spent most of it at the dragon camp. They tagged along as the team went out into the field to study the dragons. As Luna had said, one of the dragons landed to sit on Charlie's shoulder and eat out of his hand. The rest seemed almost comfortable with Charlie, but they wouldn't come near the rest of the group. Draco and Han even made some notes on their observations, because as Luna said, it would never hurt to have information from a different point of view.<p>

They only worked half the day, and then went back to the camp, where they played board games and laughed all afternoon. As the three older men had cooked dinner, Draco and Luna had ended up with clean up duty after the meal.

"Since the three of you are better cooks than Han and I are, do you think Rolf would mind if I offered to buy the food and we came over and ate more often?" Draco asked hesitantly as he dried the dishes Luna washed by hand.

She smiled at him. "I think it would be fine. But it's the company you enjoy as much as the food. You haven't had fun much in your life, Draco."

He shrugged. "No, not really. Fun is not something the Malfoy dynasty has held in high regard."

"That's a shame." she observed. "Having fun is good for your brain. Thinkng too much makes you old and tired before your time."

"This is from a Ravenclaw?" he arched an eyebrow at her, somewhat amused.

She smiled back. "Have you ever walked up the staircase to the tower and seen the portraits of some of the old Ravenclaws?"

He thought for a moment. "I've only been up that way once or twice, and I didn't really pay attention to the portraits."

"Most of them made McGonagall look young." she whispered conspiratorily.

Draco laughed. "Well then, we must have fun sometimes, so you don't turn into a wrinkled old hag before you reach your thirties."

"You have a very nice laugh, Draco." she informed him.

Rolf stuck his head into the kitchen area and asked to speak to Luna for a moment. Draco asked him to come back after they were done speaking.

They were only gone a minute before they came back.

"What's on your mind, Draco?" Rolf asked, leaning against the tentpole.

"I was going to ask," Draco put away the last plate. "if I buy groceries, would you mind if Han and I came over and ate more often. He's an awful cook, and I'm even worse."

Rolf laughed. "Actually, I was going to beg a favor from you, so maybe we can make a deal. Han told us that he's planning to go to Tokyo next weekend. Would you mind if Luna came over and stayed with you next weekend so Charlie and I can have some time to ourselves?"

Draco looked toward Luna.

"That's what Rolf just asked me. I said it was fine with me as long as you didn't mind."

"I guess that would be fine." Draco shrugged.

"Thanks." Rolf clapped him on the shoulder as he shoved away from the pole. "I really appreciate it, and of course you're welcome to come eat any time. Especially if you buy groceries."

Draco and Han didn't return to their cabin until well after dark that night. Draco immediately floo called Astoria and asked her to arrange for the grocery shipments to be sent to the dragon camp.

* * *

><p>It rained again on Wednesday, so they lost another day of foundation digging. There were extra days factored into the construction estimate for such occurences, so they weren't detrimentally off track. But every day lost was one day longer Draco was stuck in China.<p>

Han was already packed, so Friday night when they finished work, he took a shower, changed, and was off to Tokyo by 8pm. Luna arrived shortly before he left. Draco gave her the grand tour of the cabin, which consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a main room that functioned as the kitchen, dining room, and sitting area.

"What are we going to do tonight, Draco?" she asked, sitting across from him at the table.

He picked at the leftover spaghetti Luna had brought. "If you don't mind, I'd like to just have kind of a quiet evening and go to bed relatively early. I was out working at 7 this morning."

She nodded. "That's fine. My father sent the newest issue of The Quibbler, so I'll just read that." She pulled the magazine from her bag and plopped it on the table, upside down, of course.

The article she was reading caught Draco's eye, and as the magazine was facing him, he was soon reading along. It was a human interest piece about the Harpies' new keeper, a muggleborn who had been orphaned during the war and was the guardian of a non-magical younger sister.

"Since when does The Quibbler have articles like this?" Draco asked when he reached the bottom of the page.

"Oh." Luna looked up at him. "Hermione suggested Daddy see a muggle healer, I guess about two years ago. They started him on some medication, and he's a lot different now."

"Different how?" Draco waited patiently for Luna to finish reading the page they were on.

"He doesn't stay up all night talking to furniture any more." Luna nodded for Draco to turn the page.

Draco wasn't sure how to take that. "That's good, I guess."

Luna shrugged. "Most people think it's an improvement. I don't know. Maybe it's just that I was so used to him being the other way. It's been very good for The Quibbler. Now that the stories make more sense, readership has really improved."

"Is he still writing about all the creatures no one has ever heard of?"

"Somewhat." she pushed her hair back behind her ear. "I've talked him into limiting those stories to one per issue now. We've talked about actually publishing a second magazine that just focuses on magical creatures and plants."

Draco looked up at her. "There might be a pretty good market for that."

She smiled. "I'm hoping there is. If we do get the second one off the ground, I'm going to ask Rolf and Charlie to write an exclusive about the miniature dragons for the first issues. Maybe even get Charlie to write a regular column on dragons."

"You've put a lot of thought into this." Draco nodded appreciatively.

"Sometimes I do think about something besides nargles." she winked at him.

They read the rest of the magazine in silence.

"Draco, you're falling asleep sitting up." Luna's voice startled him. He jerked upright. "Go to bed, and you can finish reading this timorrow."

He nodded, yawning and stretching. "Sorry."

She smiled at him. "Good night, Draco."

* * *

><p>The next morning, Luna woke to the smell of bacon and coffee. She padded out into the main room.<p>

Draco waved from the stove. "I started breakfast. Bacon and toast are two of the few things I can cook. Do you want tea? Han has gotten me drinking coffee in the mornings."

"Coffee is fine." Luna answered, pouring herself a cup. "Rolf is a cofee drinker too."

"Um, I hate to ask, since you're sort of my guest, but I never get eggs right." Draco looked like a guilty little boy.

Luna laughed. "If you do the rest, I suppose I can handle the eggs."

He took the bacon up and stood aside so she could cook the eggs. He set the table while she finished up.

"So what are we doing today?" Draco asked as she came to the table.

"Well, if you didn't have anything else planned," She buttered a slice of toast and put it on her plate. "I thought we might explore your forest."

He rolled his eyes. "Our forest is less than five miles from your forest."

"Yes, and we have dragons and you don't." she told him before putting a whole slice of bacon in her mouth.

He gestured at her with a piece of toast. "You have a point there. What do you think we'll find in the forest over here?"

"I don't know."Luna shrugged and then grinned. "Which is why I want to look."

They went out to the construction site first. Draco explained how the school was being built with a combination of magical and muggle methods. The foundation was was mostly being done the muggle way, digging deep into the earth to pour concrete slabs and pillars. They hoped the school would stand as long as Hogwarts, and while the mountains of China were less prone to natural disasters than many other areas, they wanted to make sure the school was as safe and sturdy as possible. Luna spent nearly an hour listening to Draco's plans for the school.

"You're really proud of this project." she smiled at him as they started to walk away, into the forest.

"I want to be." he shrugged. "All magical kids should have the opportunity to have the experiences we did at Hogwarts."

"You've changed a lot from the person you were in school." she observed.

He rolled his eyes. "Yes and no. I've let go of the blood supremacy and economic stereotypes, since I don't have my father spewing them at me continuously. But I haven't turned into a Hufflepuff, no matter what that article a few months ago said."

She tilted her head, as if studying him. "What I meant was, you no longer try to hide your true self. You spent most of your school years trying to be what others thought you should be. You've learned to accept yourself."

He snorted. "There's no one wanting to kill me for not being what they want me to be these days."

"I'm sure that helps." Luna skipped down the path.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N = Thank you for your patience to everyone who's waited so patiently (and the few who were a little impatient). My plot bunny for The Prisoner was rabid, and it got confusing for me trying to keep up with both stories. But The Prisoner is winding down now, so I hope to be getting back on track with this one soon.

* * *

><p>"Draco, you don't come out here into the forest very often, do you?" Luna asked, looking up at where the sun was beginning to sink behind the trees.<p>

He rolled his eyes. "This is the only time I've ever been here, and I'm only here now because this is what you wanted to do. How did you ever guess?"

"Because this is the third time we've seen this tree with the spot that looks like a dabberblimp." she pointed at what looked to Draco like an abstract blotch on the pale bark of a white poplar.

"What is a dabberblimp?" he asked automatically.

"They're amphibious creatures that live..." she began.

"Wait." he interrupted. "Are you saying we're lost?"

"No," she shook her head. "I was telling you about dabberblimps."

He snorted. "I mean before that. When you said it was the third time we had seen that tree."

"Oh," her mouth formed a perfect circle. "I didn't say that we were lost, just that we've obviously been traveling in circles. The only reason it would be logical for us to do so is if we were looking for something within the circle. But since we don't know what we're looking for exactly, there's no reason for us to be traveling in a circle."

"We're lost." he pronounced.

She smiled serenely. "Perhaps this is the beginning of a grand adventure."

"More likely it's the beginning of freezing to death!" he ranted. "Did you forget we're in the mountains of China in March? It will be dark in probably less than two hours and the temperatures will drop below freezing!"

"It's a good thing it doesn't snow much in this part of China." she said, looking up toward the sky.

"Are you insane?" Draco grabbed her arm, turning her to face him. "We're both wearing lightweight jackets. We have no cloaks, no food, no water, no shelter, and no idea how to get back to the cabin!"

"We can always cast warming charms." Luna replied nonchalantly. "There is plenty of wild game and edible vegetation. There are also navigational charms to help us find our way home." she looked up at Draco. "Do you know any?"

"Why would I know any navigational charms?" he shoved his hand through his hair. "I work for a charitable foundation. Shouldn't you know navigational charms? You're the one stomping through the woods with dragons!"

"Yes, but Rolf knows them, so I always let him do them." her brow wrinkled in thought. "Perhaps we can find something to transfigure into a shelter." she looked around the forest.

"Do you not realize there are moose and tigers in this wilderness?" he gaped at her.

"Moose, yes." she shrugged. "It's too early in the spring for most of the tigers at this altitude. There may be a few out, but most are going to be further down in the foothills. But there's also a significant hippogriff population in this area."

He stopped walking and looked at her with wide eyes. "You cannot be serious."

"Of course I am. But they're just hippogriffs." She walked over toward a boulder, looking it over.

"Just a hippogriff almost took my arm off my third year!" he cried.

She turned to face him. "How bad was that, really? Because Harry and Ronald thought you were exaggerating your injury for attention."

He pushed up his sleeve and showed her a scar. "The bloody horse bird severed a tendon and punctured a major blood vessel. I could have bled to death or lost the use of my arm."

She fingered the scar gently. "Hippogriffs don't think like humans. He felt he was perfectly reasonable to attack you. And they're also used to being around other hippogriffs. Humans are more fragile."

He leaned against a tree as she released his arm. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?" she asked, walking around the boulder.

"You're going off on some side tangent, instead of focusing on the problem at hand." he shook his head.

She rounded the boulder and leaned against it. "I've found that the more you allow your mind to open, the more that flows into it."

"Has the way back flowed in yet?" he folded his arms.

"No, but I'm thinking we can transfigure this rock into a shelter." she pointed at the nine foot tall boulder. "If we do it right, it would be easy to heat with warming charms. We could find some berries to eat, maybe kill and cook a rabbit or a pheasant..."

"Luna, we can not stay out here all night!" he insisted. "We have to get back to the cabin before dark!"

"Draco, you said yourself we're less than two hours from sunset. If we try to find our way back now, we're taking the risk of not making it back and not being able to find suitable shelter once the sun goes down. If one of us steps in a hole walking around in the dark and breaks a leg, we'll be in trouble."

He stared at her for a long moment. "You're serious. We have to spend the night in the forest."

"That's our best option." she shrugged. "Then in the morning, we can make the decision whether to try to find the way back on our own, or send a patronus to Rolf and Charlie for help."

She swished her wand, transfiguring the boulder into something resembling an eskimo's igloo. "Easier to keep warm." she explained at Draco's puzzled expression. She flicked her wand again and created a vent hole near the top, slightly to one side. "To let the smoke out when we build a fire." she explained.

He looked at her mistrustfully. "How many times have you done this?"

She smiled. "Only a few. Rolf had taken us out into the forest and we ended up staying too long. We weren't actually lost."

He nodded but didn't look reassured.

Luna dropped to her hands and knees, crawling into the boulder turned igloo. "Come on!" she called after, her voice echoing strangely.

He followed her into the shelter, realizing it was very dark. "Lumos Maxima!"

They found themselves in a small room, about the size of Draco's closet when he lived at Malfoy Manor. The walls were straight and smooth, the ceiling just over the top of Draco's head. Luna was already on her hands and knees, crawling back outside.

"Well come on then, we have to find something to eat." Luna called back to him.

He was really going to spend the night in a rock turned into an igloo lost in the Chinese mountain wilderness with Loony Lovegood. This would be one of those adventures that would be a great story to tell at a dinner party in twenty years.

Right now there was nothing funny about it.


End file.
